Portland Feasibility Study Points the Way for Australia’s Timber Towns

31 July 2026

Portland Feasibility Study Points the Way for Australia’s Timber Towns

Timber Towns Victoria (TTV) has welcomed the completion of the Hardwood Timber Manufacturing Hub Feasibility Study in Portland, calling it proof of what timber communities can achieve when governments, industry and councils invest in a shared future.

TTV President Cr Karen Stephens, who is also Mayor of Glenelg Shire, said the milestone reflected years of deliberate preparation by the community and its partners. “The completion of the Hardwood Timber Manufacturing Hub Feasibility Study, alongside Council’s Future Portland Project, demonstrates a proactive approach to understanding and preparing for future opportunities across Glenelg Shire.”

The study confirms the commercial and technical viability of a world-class engineered timber manufacturing facility in Portland. It would convert locally grown plantation Blue Gum, currently exported as woodchips for pulp and paper, into Glue Laminated Timber for structural beams in residential and commercial construction, an Australian first for the species.

This work completes phase one of The Precinct, a long-term vision to develop Australia’s largest integrated plantation timber manufacturing and prefabricated housing component precinct in the Green Triangle. Later phases propose a Laminated Veneer Lumber production line and a component fabrication centre.

Investment of more than $200 million is expected in the first phase, creating 74 permanent jobs alongside around 150 construction jobs. At full development, The Precinct has the potential to support around 280 ongoing jobs, process more than one million tonnes of plantation timber annually, and manufacture building components supplying around 20,000 homes each year.

Led by the Commonwealth-funded Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub and delivered by IndustryEdge, the work was backed by more than $500,000 from the Portland Diversification Fund and the investment of local industry, with support from the Victorian Government. The next stage of Precinct development is backed by $1.75 million from the Victorian Government alongside Commonwealth funding, with Laminated Veneer Lumber production trials due to begin in August.

For TTV, the significance goes beyond Portland. The project shows how value-adding to plantation resources can replace the native forest supply no longer available in Victoria, reduce Australia’s reliance on imported product, support national housing targets, and strengthen sovereign manufacturing capability. It is the kind of coordinated, long-term investment TTV has called for in its 2026 Government Brief, which urges governments to align forestry, housing, manufacturing and regional development policy so that every timber town has a pathway to this kind of future.

Reaching this milestone has taken partnership across every level of government, and TTV has congratulated the Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub, Glenelg Shire Council and all project partners involved. More information about the project is available at The Precinct.

– ENDS –

Timber Towns Victoria (TTV) is the peak local government body representing councils across Victoria whose communities are sustained by the forest and timber industries. TTV advocates for policy settings that support sustainable forest management, regional employment and the long-term prosperity of the towns and families that depend on working forests.

Media enquiries

Cr Karen Stephens, President, Timber Towns Victoria / Mayor, Glenelg Shire Council

E: secretary@timbertownsvictoria.com.au  |  P: 0488 900 645

Sources: The Precinct media release, Stage One of Precinct Development Delivered (theprecinctportland.com.au); Media release, Jacinta Ermacora MP, State Member for Western Victoria Region, Backing More Jobs and Manufacturing in Portland, 23 July 2026. Timber Towns Victoria 2026 Government Brief, National Forest Policy Reform.

Quick links

Share this post